Recommendations - Cambridgeshire Constabulary, October 2024
We identified organisational learning following an IOPC investigation where two marked police cars were travelling in convoy to a hare coursing immediate response graded incident. A member of the public driving a car collided with a police car, leaving them with serious injuries.
IOPC reference
Recommendations
The IOPC recommends that Cambridgeshire Constabulary review its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) relating to attendance at spontaneous ‘Hare Coursing’ incidents. Cambridgeshire Constabulary SOPs for ‘Hare Coursing’ states: “on receiving contact indicating hare coursing is occurring or that hare coursers have coursed recently and are still in the area, create an incident for dispatch on an ‘immediate grade’ to ensure the relevant people are notified and attend without delay”.
The SOP should not encourage a blanket ‘immediate grade’ response to all reports, as it does not appear to align with the guidance provided to roads policing staff in chapter 1 of Roadcraft, which states: “no emergency is so great that it justifies the possibility of injuring or killing someone. It is better to arrive later than not at all”.
Instead, a more considered approach, utilising existing risk assessment tools, ‘National Decision Model’ (NDM) and ‘Threat, Harm, Risk, Investigation, Vulnerability and Engagement’ (THRIVE) to assess and rationalise response grade on the individual circumstances of each report may be a more appropriate and proportionate approach to safeguarding all concerned.
This follows an IOPC investigation where two marked police cars were travelling in convoy to a hare coursing immediate response graded incident, when a member of the public, driving a car, emerged from a junction into the path of the second police car and collided with it, leaving the member of the public with serious injuries.
Accepted
All Force Control Room staff have been briefed to remind that the blanket “immediate grade” classification of incidents of Hare Coursing is removed. The established “THRIVE” principles in operation in the Force Control Room shall be applied to such incidents, where case-by-case assessment of the information and conclusion as to level of risk will be matched to a proportionate incident grading.
This information has also been conveyed to all Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT) staff, who are usually the primary responders to such events; as well as all frontline policing staff in Cambridgeshire, who may also be responders.
This has been amended in the standard operating procedures for attendance at Hare Coursing incidents.
The IOPC recommends that Cambridgeshire Constabulary work towards obtaining incident data recorders (IDR)/Driver and vehicle data management systems (DVDMS) for their vehicles.
Roads Policing APP states: “The accuracy and inherent independence of information automatically recorded by retrofit, dedicated IDRs or other DVDMS is of great value to investigators of post-pursuit incidents. DVDMS also provides the opportunity to both manage and supervise vehicle usage and driver behaviour. Forces should work towards a situation where all operational vehicles used in pursuit and response are fitted with IDR or DVDMS-type devices.”
This follows an IOPC investigation where two marked police cars were travelling in convoy to a hare coursing immediate response graded incident, when a member of the public, driving a car, emerged from a junction into the path of the second police car and collided with it, leaving the member of the public with serious injuries.
In this investigation there was a reliance on ‘Jaguar Land Rover’ (JLR) ‘Airbag Control Module’ (ACM) data. Most modern vehicle types have similar capacity, enabling control module data download by vehicle manufacturers to produce reliable information. Although this avenue is likely to be available for investigations of this nature, the force may wish to consider obtaining IDR/DVDMS systems that are able to provide accurate/reliable data, independent of those from their vehicle manufacturers for evidential purposes.
Accepted
This recommendation is accepted in so far as “working towards” IDR. Cambridgeshire Constabulary, as part of a Strategic Alliance with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire forces, has recently reviewed, at Chief Officer level, the obtaining and use of such systems.
Continuing work to understand the cost and benefit has been commissioned, notably given the significant investment to secure an ultimate position of complete fleet coverage.